After UFC 95 win, Demian Maia ready for title shot

With Demian Maia’s slick submission victory over Chael Sonnen at Saturday night’s “UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson,” many observers are claiming the Brazilian has earned a chance to face the division’s top contenders.

As Maia recently told TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), he believes he’s earned a title shot.

“I’ve already had [five] fights in the UFC, and I won,” Maia said. “I think I have the experience to fight for the title.”

Now undefeated in his first 10 professional bouts, Maia has earned “Submission of the Night” in four of his five UFC contests. Only Maia’s submission win over Nate Quarry, a rear-naked choked issued in under three minutes, didn’t earn an award as the night’s best.

It is the 31-year-old’s aggressive jiu-jitsu that many believe could prove challenging for current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Maia knows the task would be daunting.

“I think Anderson is very dominant right now,” Maia said. “Nobody has been so dominate like Anderson.”

Should Maia successfully make his case with UFC brass and earn himself a shot at the title, there would still be one step remaining to arrange a bout with Silva. “The Spider” must first get through an April bout with challenger Thales Leites.

With Leites a Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert in his own right, Maia believes Silva could be in for a more difficult bout than many experts are currently predicting.

“Thales is very good in jiu-jitsu,” Maia said. “I [grappled] against him in 2003. It was a pretty hard fight. There was a lot of points both ways. In the end, I won. But it was a really tough one.

“As soon as [Leites] got his black belt, he started to fight MMA more and more. So I don’t know how is his level because he was not too long fighting black belts. He did not get the same experience I got. But for sure he’s pretty tough. And if Anderson makes a mistake with him, I believe [Leites] has a pretty good chance to win.”

Regardless of the results of UFC 97’s main event between Silva and Leites, the UFC’s middleweight division — once considered to have been “cleaned-out” by the current champion — has a host of deserving contenders in Leites, Maia, Yushin Okami, Michael Bisping, Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt, among others.

Maia hopes the UFC is prepared to put his name at the top of the list.

“This weight right now is kind of a mess,” Maia said. “[The UFC is] trying to figure it out.

“About my ranking, I can not say. But I want to fight for the title. I never wanted to before. I thought I needed experience. But now I feel have the experience to fight for the title.”

For complete coverage of UFC 95, check out the UFC Events section of MMAjunkie.com.

This story, written by John Morgan, was produced by TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com) specially for MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). The show — which is hosted by fighter/broadcaster Frank Trigg, Gorgeous George and ace producer Goze — books some of the biggest names in MMA. Download all the former episodes at www.taggradio.com, or tune into TAGG Radio’s live shows Monday-Friday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.